of pleasure, a
cloud would instantly come over Charley's countenance, and he would say
in a petulant tone: "What do you want with them, we can surely enjoy
ourselves without their company," and this reply would at once remind me
of his exclusive and peculiar temperament, (which for the moment I had
forgotten) and to please him I would say no more about it. But for this
one fault of my companion's, and a fault it certainly was, I believe had
I had a brother, I could have loved him no better than I loved Charley
Gray. Previous to my mother's marriage her home had been in Western
Canada; her father died while she was quite a young girl, but her
mother, now far advanced in years, still lived in the old home, some
fifty miles from the city of Hamilton. The affairs of the farm and
household were managed by a son and daughter who had never married, and
still resided in their paternal home. My mother was the youngest in the
family, and had been the pet of the household during her childhood and
early youth; she was many years younger than either her brother or
sister, and they had exercised a watchful and loving care over their pet
sister till the period of her marriage and removal to Eastern Canada.
Her brother and sister seldom left their own home, owing to their care
of their aged mother, and for some years past my mother's circumstances
had not allowed her to visit her early home; and, amid the cares of
life, letters passed less and less frequently between them, till they
came to be like "Angels' visits," few and far between. My mother was
equally pleased and surprised, a few weeks after I returned home, by
receiving a kind letter from her brother Nathan. Like all his letters
it contained but few words, but they were dictated by a kind heart. The
most important words (to me) which the letter contained were these:
"Your boy Walter needs more schooling before he goes out into the world,
send him to me and he shall have it. If his disposition is anything like
his mother's at his age I know we shall get along famously together. I
will board and clothe him for two years; he shall attend the best
schools in the place, I promise nothing further, only then, when the boy
leaves me, he shall have all he deserves, if it should be only a cuff on
the ear. In case you should find any difficulty in defraying his
expenses, I enclose money sufficient for that purpose. I know not the
reason, but I feel a strong desire to see your boy, and find